1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications. More specifically, a network profiling system that may be used by a provider of high bandwidth connections to facilitate connectivity and service order entry by customers and/or clients is disclosed.
2. Description of Related Art
With the increasing popularity of the Internet and telecommuting, service providers such as DSL and Internet cable providers are providing more and more high bandwidth connections to users at remote locations such as homes, home offices, and corporations. Examples of high bandwidth connection service providers include incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) such as Pacific Bell or PacBell of California and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) such as Covad Communications Group, Inc., assignee of the subject patent application. The ILECs and CLECs are collectively referred to herein as LECs.
LECs typically have numerous customers such as Internet service providers (ISPs) and/or corporations. Each ISP generally allows Internet access by its subscribers via the ISP while each corporation allows access by its employees, contractors, and/or other parties to its corporate network and/or the Internet via the corporate network. These ISP subscribers and corporate employees, contractors, etc. are generally referred to herein as the end users or clients of the customers.
The LEC generally provides layer 2, such as ATM layer, connectivity while the customers generally provide layer 3, such as IP layer, connectivity to the clients. The entry of connectivity and service order often requires the input of various network configuration information by the customer and, optionally, by the client., in order for the LEC to provide layer 2 connectivity, for example. In addition, a client premise equipment (CPE) is typically installed at the premise of each client and network configuration data is generally utilized to configure the CPE, such as by downloading the network configuration data to the CPE.
One method for collecting the network configuration data includes providing an interface which serves to collect both the network configuration data and information specific to a particular client. The interface may comprise a set of web-based order forms accessible to the customers from the LEC via the Internet, for example. The order forms obtain the order information for each client and thus obtain client-specific information such as the client site and the client""s CPE technical parameters.
However, such an interface may be inefficient. For example, the order forms require the input of all parameters such that, although certain network configuration parameters may be similar or identical for several or all of the customer""s clients, the same information must be inputted for each client. Such redundancy or multiple inputs of the same information not only leads to inefficiency but also may serve as a source for errors.
In addition, although the order forms require the input of client-specific information, certain client-specific information, such as the client location and certain IP-level information, may not be available at the time of the ordering. Because certain client-specific information may not be available at the time of the service ordering, the customer may input temporary client configurations which are to be replaced with the actual configurations at a later time. Such a workaround can complicate both the support and the training processes for the ordering process.
The unavailability of certain client-specific information at the time of the ordering can also result in additional order information obtaining processes that must be undertaken in order to complete the ordering process. Such additional order information obtaining processes may include subsequent communication with the customer or the client via the telephone or other mechanisms. As is evident, such additional order information obtaining processes further decreases the overall efficiency and complexity of the ordering process.
The above-described interface also may not include verification processes for verification of data taken during the initial order information obtaining processes as well as data taken during the subsequent additional order information obtaining processes. Thus, the data taken during the various stages of the order taking process may not be compatible or valid. Thus, certain orders may need to be rejected due to insufficient or conflicting network configuration data.
It would thus be desirable to simplify and improve the user-friendliness, efficiency, and accuracy of order entry process such that errors and redundant data entries are minimized.
Systems and methods for network profiling that may be used by a provider of high bandwidth connections to facilitate connectivity and service order entry by customers and/or clients are disclosed. It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, a system, a method, or a computer readable medium such as a computer readable storage medium or a computer network wherein program instructions are sent over optical or electronic communication lines. Several inventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.
A method for ordering client service by a customer from a service provider, the customer having a plurality of clients, generally comprises specifying at least one network configuration profile, the specifying including selecting a preferred CPE, selecting a network mode, selecting a network feature, selecting at least one network feature parameter including a static parameter, and defining a value for the static network feature parameter, wherein the network configuration profile includes at least one dynamic network feature parameter, the dynamic parameter having an unspecified value in the network configuration profile. The method further includes selecting one of the at least one network configuration profile and specifying values for the at least one dynamic parameter.
The specifying at least one network configuration profile may further include a validation process for validating the specification of the preferred CPE, the network mode, the network feature, the network feature parameter, and the value for the static network feature parameter.
The specification of the preferred CPE may be performed before selecting the network mode and network feature. Alternatively, the selecting the preferred CPE may be from a list of CPEs supporting the selected network mode and selected network feature. Further, the specification of at least one network configuration profile may include specification of at least one dynamic network feature parameter. The specification of at least one network configuration profile further includes specification of at most one mode for each mode type. Specification of at most one mode for each mode type may optionally include specification of at most one mode for each of forwarding type mode and WAN encapsulation type mode, wherein specification of at most one mode for the forwarding type mode may include specification of one of bridging mode and routing mode and wherein specification of at most one mode for the WAN encapsulation type mode may include specification of one of multi-protocol mode and PPP mode.
A method for specification of a network configuration profile for ordering client service by a customer from a service provider, wherein the customer has a plurality of clients, is also disclosed. The method generally includes providing a list of supported CPEs, selecting at least one CPE from the list of supported CPEs, providing modes supported by the selected CPE, selecting at least one mode from the modes supported by each selected CPE, providing features corresponding to the at least one selected mode of the selected CPEs, selecting at least one feature corresponding to the selected mode, providing parameters corresponding to the selected feature of the selected CPE, specifying at least one of the parameters as a static parameter, defining each static parameter, and specifying at least one of the parameters as a dynamic parameter, the dynamic parameter having an undefined value in the network configuration profile.
The method may further include validating each of selecting the mode, selecting the feature, specifying the static parameter, defining the static parameter, and specifying the dynamic parameter.
A method for specification of a network configuration profile for ordering client service by a customer having a plurality of clients from a service provider generally comprises providing a list of supported CPEs, selecting none of the CPEs from the list of supported CPEs, providing modes supported by each of the supported CPE, selecting at least one mode from the modes supported by the supported CPEs, providing features corresponding to the at least one selected mode, selecting at least one feature corresponding to the selected mode, providing parameters corresponding to the selected feature of the selected mode, specifying at least one of the parameters as a static parameter, defining each static parameter, specifying at least one of the parameters as a dynamic parameter, the dynamic parameter having an undefined value in the network configuration profile, providing a list of matching CPEs supporting the selected mode and feature, and selecting at least one preferred CPE from the list of matching CPEs.
The method may further include validating each of selecting the feature, specifying the static parameter, defining the static parameter, and specifying the dynamic parameter.
A network profiling system comprises a database of supported CPEs, a database of mode types corresponding to each supported CPE, a database of modes corresponding to each mode type for each support CPE, a database of features corresponding to each mode, a database of parameters corresponding to each feature, and a validation engine for validating selections of mode, feature, parameter, and value of parameter. The validation engine may comprises rules for determining invalid selections of mode, feature, parameter, and value of parameter. The network profiling system may further include a database of default values for each parameter and/or at least one profile template, each profile template having a set of predefined mode, feature, parameter, and value of parameter.
The network profile system allows the customer to specify one or more network and CPE configuration profiles. The profiles serve as basis for client service order entry such that the information that is the same for several of the clients are embodied within the profile and such that only the client-specific information need to be entered during the client service order process. The specification of the one or more network configuration profiles can be complete by the customers of the LEC, for example, in a one-time, up-front process and, optionally, other subsequent process to implement modifications or to specify additional network configuration profiles, for example.
Each profile contains network configuration information that is common to all or a subset of the clients or CPEs of the customer. In other words, the profile system enables the customers to specify the functionality that is shared among the various CPEs such that generic profiles can be created. The network profile system ensures compatibility of desired features and the selected preferred CPEs via its verification process.
The network profile system preferably includes one or more templates containing predefined configurations such that the customer may simplify utilize one or more of the network profile templates without modifications so as to further simplify the customer network configuration set-up process.
The network profile system enables support of CPE features requested by customer. Such CPE features may include, authentication, compression, and dynamic address assignment for PPP configuration, IP unnumbered configuration, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) parameters such as DNS and Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) information, as well as simple network management protocol (SNMP) configuration.
The network profile system allows the customers to offer a large number of CPEs to its clients by automatically determining which CPEs support the customer""s network configuration. The network profile system also provides a framework for the LEC to more easily extend its offerings of CPEs and network features which can be available after codifying the additional CPEs and/or network features into the network profile system.
During the client ordering process, the profiles created by the network profile system allows the customer to specify the values of only the parameters of the client-specific network features. In other words, by referencing the stored customer profile information in the network profile system, the client service order entry pages only generally require information that is client-specific. Thus, the network profile system simplifies client ordering by minimizing the amount of technical information required during client service order entry.